Hey everyone, my new Maxima should be arriving at the dealer in the next few days. The dealer is filling the tank up before I take delivery, and I'm sure that they will put 87 octane in it. So before I give the car any harder acceleration, I'm going to wait until I can fill it back up with 93. In the meantime, what kind of driving habits would you recommend and for how many miles? I don't know if it matters as much with newer vehicles, but I want to make sure the the engine gets broken in and everything is seated fine.

I was thinking about running the original oil for 1,000 miles due to it being a new engine. Then I was going to change the oil and filter, and add a conventional oil to run 3,000 miles before changing again. Is this overkill with the 3.5 in the Maxima? I've always heard the conventional oil allows new engines to break in better than synthetic.

I know everyone has a different opinion on oil brands, but is it recommended to use synthetic in the Maxima? If it's not necessary, I may just use a synthetic blend with all oil changes.

 

Opinions will be all over the place on your situation. You can't go wrong changing at 1000 and using conventional oil until whatever miles you want. I did that with both the 09 and the 11 Maximas and did not get over it 4k revs the first 1000 miles. Old school accelerate and engine braking a few times which was done to seat the rings...probably unnecessary with newer cars but couldn't hurt...is the way I saw it.

Put synthetic in at 10k in both.

 

Yeah as Mick said. I have heard the engine should be fully broken in around 20-30k but I think 10k is fine as well.

 

It's going to be tough, friend. Tough to stay off the throttle. Tough to keep your speed down. Tough to not tap into the power and enjoy the car.

But stand fast. You should definitely not hammer on the throttle. I went almost 3000 miles before I really stood on it and was amazed at how quick the car is even if you never go past half throttle.

I followed the recommendations in my manual to a T. Nissan says not to drive for long periods of time at a constant speed (what that means, I don't know - no road trips?) and not to use full throttle for the first 1200 miles or rev past 4000.

As for the oil question, Nissan says use synthetic blend with esther oil. My first oil change was done at the dealership (with a free coupon) and they used Dino oil. I figure that if they did, so can I. That lasted one more. Since oil change #3, I'm back to synthetic. It costs more, but is (allegedly) better.

 

I think it means dont use cruise control and vary your speed on the highway.

 

Thanks, I'll be sure to check out that section in the owners manual. I definitely will not be going full throttle for a while with the car.

I thought ester oil was more for industrial use What brand synthetics have you all been using that contain the ester oil?

 

I'd go through the first tank of gas, fill up with quality 93 and floor it.

 

Agreed

 

Ha! Wasting no time....

 

Definitely take it easy for the first 500 miles. Not only is the engine not fully broken into, the tires, brakes, and other suspension components have not been fully broken into. The guys over at BMW, Lamborghini, and Porsche that I work with all have the same suggestion for engine break-in for the first ~1500 miles:

• Vary speeds and allow engine braking when it is possible and safe
• Avoid fast or hard accelerations from a standstill or while at speed
• Avoid driving at a constant speed, decelerate and accelerate as often as possible
• Do not run the gas tank till empty as it can overheat the fuel pump, allow 1-2 gallons to remain and refill

If you want to be really **** about it, they even go as far to say that you should increase your revs by 1,000 RPM every 500 miles. By that point, you would have still stayed below the 4,000 RPM recommended by Nissan within the first 1400 miles.

 

I ran mine easy for the first 5000 KM and first oil change.
After that I started switching to the sport mode and manual paddles.
At 10000 KM I changed from the dino oil that dealerships put in to Mobil 1 synthetic.
Now the dealership recommended 6000 KM between oil changes instead of 5000 KM.
So basically take it easy for at least first oil change and then after that you can have some fun .